These are Trumpling times for journalists in America.
They failed to detect the extent of candidate Donald J.Trump’s appeal to voters, and so they utterly miscalled last November’s presidential election.
They have been trampled over by a combative and unpredictable President Trump and his lieutenants, who castigate the news media as “dishonest” liars, “opposition” conspirators and “a failing pile of garbage.”
And they are befuddled by the fact that many people don’t care about facts and seem more willing to accept “alternative facts” and fake news.
So how do journalists respond?
Mark your calendars! On June 3, Renaissance Journalism is hosting a one-day symposium for journalists on educational equity. The event, "Equity Matters: Covering the Troubling Divide in the Education of America's Children," will bring together the nation’s top experts and leading education journalists in examining the root causes and impact of our nation’s troubling “opportunity gap.” This disparity has resulted in an unequal education system, shortchanging the futures of millions of low-income, minority and immigrant children.
A farmer’s experiment using stuffed toy tigers to frighten away menacing monkeys may prove to be the inspiration that will spark a reinvention of journalism in Bhutan, the remote Himalayan kingdom known for its daring goal to achieve Gross National Happiness (GNH). That’s the hope that sums up my recent trip to Bhutan, where I worked with some of the country’s leading newspaper, television and radio journalists.
